#i truly believe that it was also ysabeau knowing her son as well as she does and knowing that if diana wasn't strong enough

[sheswoven]

i have major bones to pick with every 'parental' figure in diana's life . the smallest bone , though , goes to ysabeau .

[orlissa]

Shadow of Night Read Along: Chapter 11

Some time later, Phillippe orders Matthew to the hay barn; the way the two men are posturing clearly irritates Diana, who even wishes for Ysabeau’s presence. Diana retreats to the stillroom, but soon learns that whatever Matthew and Phillippe are doing in the hay barn is wreaking havoc in the whole household, so she goes there. Climbing to the loft space of the hay barn, she finds half of the castle staff there. Downstairs, Matthew and Phillippe are fighting, leaving each other bloodied with their swords. The fight goes on for a while, but when Matthew notices Diana, he stops for a moment, which Phillippe uses to disarm him and to get him at swordpoint. Phillippe orders Diana down and taunts Matthew with her presence. He warns his son to keep his attention on his opponent instead of on Diana, and tells him to see the light in life as well, not just the dark. He then proceeds to tell Diana about Matthew’s blood rage. Diana deducts that his blood rage caused the death of Eleanor, too. Meanwhile Matthew is getting wilder, less human; he even attacks Pierre, but Phillippe soon corners him again. He tells his son that he forgives him—Phillippe has deducted that Matthew will be the one who kills him, but he believes that it’ll be because of his blood rage. Diana realizes that Phillippe is not trying to break Matthew, only his guilt. Phillippe also tells them that whatever is coming, the three of them is going to face it together. The scene, the forgiveness, helps Matthew break out from the grips of the blood rage, and Diana is allowed to go to him. Phillippe declares that there can be no question about Diana being a de Clermont, so he calls her to him and adopts her as his blood-sworn daughter. He asks the staff who is willing to stand by Diana when her enemies come, because she will need help—several of the servants volunteer. Afterwards, Diana and Matthew are left alone for a while, so she could tend to his wounds, although Matthew acts as if he was to take care of her. The next day is the feast of St. Nicholas, and a visitor arrives at Sept Tours: the witch Champier. In his usual cunning way, Phillippe deals with the witch with half-truths and downright lies, expecting him to gauge Diana’s real power, while also testing Diana on how will she react, if she will keep the de Clermont secrets. Champier realizes that Diana is hiding something, so he decides to get it from her by force, in a way that would completely deprive Diana of those memories. Phillippe plays along, restraining her. Diana is not willing to give up her memories, especially Phillippe adopting her or of her home, so she remembers what her new father told her—think. Stay alive—and, without even realizing it, stabs Champier in the chest with Phillippe’s dagger. Matthew arrives, breaks Champier’s neck and drinks his blood to find out what is going on in the man’s head. Phillippe admits that it was all a test to see if Diana could be trusted. But she and Matthew have passed all of his tests, so now it’s time to make Diana truly a de Clermont—by marriage. She and Matthew are to wed on Saturday.

Notes

Phillippe, explicitly going against the Covenant, actively influences who is being chosen for pope. It’s very sexy of him.

I wanna know who Margot is. And why did they need to stage Louis’s assassination? What the hell were these vamps up to?!

I would really love to see that “family council” about Phillippe’s daughters.

Matthew jumping on the chance of helping out Diana in the stillroom instead of dealing with his father is way more hilarious than it should be.

Diana taking notes in a de Clermont book creates some interesting paradoxes—would Ysabeau and Sarah find those notes in the present?

Phillippe notes that if the gods wish to destroy someone, they first make them mad. He would know.

Phillippe slaps Matthew on the backside. Like a child, really.

The first mention of Benjamin.

The blood rage is worse when Matthew is tired or hungry—so great it is then that he likes to fast and otherwise torture himself.

Phillippe’s ceremony of adopting Diana is a kind of magic in itself, which already foreshadows that there is not much difference between creatures.

Phillippe asks the staff who is ready to stand for Diana when Matthew cannot. When Thomas, the kitchen boy, points out that Matthew does stand, Phillippe simply knocks him down. It should not be funny, but it is.

Phillippe warns Diana about the wound over Matthew’s kidney. Apparently, Phillippe is pretty well-versed in anatomy.

I love the scene when Diana is tending to Matthew’s wounds. So soft.

My life goal is to look like a pagan priestess.

Even a witch himself, Champier shows a great deal of sexism, looking down on traditional ways of witchcraft. I could write a paper on this.

Phillippe mentions a time when he talked for three hours with a king, after which said king ordered the death of thousands. I wanna know what it was exactly.

Champier came to Sept Tours on 6 December, which was a Thursday. Matthew and Diana get married on that Saturday, so 8 December.

Favorite quotes

“Just how many de Clermonts are there? And why do you all have to be men?” I demanded when there was silence once more. “Because Phillippe’s daughters were so terrifying we held a family council and begged him to stop making them.”

“I should have never taught you Greek – or English either. Your knowledge of them has caused me no end of trouble.”

“I must look like a pagan priestess.” “More so than usual, yes.”

“Marrying amid bloodshed is a de Clermont family tradition,” Phillippe said briskly. “We only seem to mate creatures who are desired by others. It is a messy business.”

“You have found a woman who is worthy of you, with courage and hope to spare, Matthaios.” “I know,” Matthew said, taking my hand. “Know this, too: you are equally worthy of her. Stop regretting your life. Start living it.

[village-skeptic]

ADOW Hogwarts House Sorting! I think Matthew is a Gryffindor and Diana a Ravenclaw, but what's your thoughts?

Darling anon: thank you for this very thought-provoking ask! I’m sorry that it took such a while for me to answer it - and that my answer ultimately got so long that I had to stick it beneath a cut.I’ve been ping-ponging back and forth on different possibilities for Matthew and Diana’s Houses for a while now, which leads me to my first conclusion: if nothing else, I feel quite sure that the Sortings for both of these two would have resulted in a wicked case of Hatstall.But even the most profound cases of deadlock have to be resolved in a House Sorting one way or the other. And so: a slightly-rambling essay on Diana and Matthew’s character evolution, and personality tropes in two different magical universes below the cut…

First of all, I know we’re just using the Houses as a personality metric, but given that ADOW is a magical universe, I find it amusing to consider situations in which Matthew and Diana might actually have encountered the Sorting Hat as a magical artifact. The interesting thing to me is that both of them (for most of their lives) would have avoided it like the plague.

Diana, anxiously: You say that putting this hat on is a necessary first step to beginning my formal magical education? *instinctively Timewalks fifteen minutes into the future to avoid the whole thing*Matthew, coolly: As a 1500 year old French-born vampire, I could not possibly belong anywhere in a school for British witches.But let’s pretend they’re encountering the Sorting Hat early in their lives, as an expected ritual. Here, I think you’re right about Diana - she ends up in Ravenclaw, mostly due to her own negotiating with the Hat. I’m reminded of Harry’s silent plea - not Slytherin! - except for Diana, communing with the Sorting Hat, I think it would be not Gryffindor! It’s the Hat’s job to sort through someone’s potential, and I refuse to believe all of Diana’s very-present mettle would go unnoticed. But as a young girl, still reeling from the deaths of her parents, I think Diana would hear all of the bravery-bravery-bravery stuff associated with Gryffindor and think oh God, anything but that, please. Far better to end up with housemates who will understand the comfort of escaping into a good book, and the very real pleasures of research, rather than pushing her to do all kinds of extroverted joiner activities. 

It’s really difficult to think about an analogue for this stage with Matthew. Eleven-year-old human Matthew  - we know he liked tools and was bright and inquisitive, so maybe a Ravenclaw? But if we somehow reverse-engineer an eleven-year-old version of Matthew de Clairmont, son of Ysabeau, stepson of Phillippe, brother of Baldwin and Louisa -I mean, really. The de Clairmonts are a Slytherin family through and through. All jokes about blood purity aside (and look, who would have more invested in the question of blood purity than a bunch of vampires?), cunning and ambition is endemic there. There’s always been a de Clairmont on the Congregation? Mmm-hmm mmm-hmm.  

But that’s just the family, you say. What about Matthew himself? Those Slytherin qualities are absolutely part of his character, especially in the earliest episodes. We see ruthless, calculating Matthew figuring out how to get Diana to share what she knows about Ashmole 782; we also see this side of him in action as he outmanuevers Baldwin by calling upon his fealty and obedience as a member of the Brotherhood. (Also, you don’t get a CV like Matthew’s without having a marked degree of professional ambition. Just saying.)

Slytherins have a rep for being the villains, and obviously I’m trying to push the characterization here past that one-dimensional stereotype. But we have ample testimony from the vampires who’ve known Matthew for hundreds of years - he CAN be “the bad guy,” whether you want to define that as at least two dead human women, or the selfishness that Baldwin describes and that Miriam and Marcus acknowledge, or even the whole pureblood thing. Think of the absolute certainty in Juliette’s voice as she tells Domenico, “Matthew hates witches.”So yeah, I think a young (or “young”) Matthew gets sorted into Slytherin. There’s definitely also a possible case for young!Matthew as a surprise Gryffindor - and oh BOY does that give me a whole bunch of Sirius Black feels - but mostly I could see him as a Slytherin, albeit an Andromeda Black-style Slytherin.

This is not necessarily the case for an older, wiser, sadder Matthew, however.

Don’t ask me how a c19 Matthew ends up with the Sorting Hat on his head (a very strange diversion during a hunting trip to Scotland?), but I think that there’d be a really good case for a Ravenclaw Sorting during the more “mature” part of Matthew’s life, before he meets Diana. The quest for knowledge is a fundamental part of his character, and it’s a really powerful part of what draws him and Diana together.

@burberrycanary and I have talked about this in detail, but the truly delightful part of this relationship is, well, the bits of it that AREN’T really magical or “fated.” I’m very here for the genuine attraction between these two individuals who are both curious, in their own ways, about the hows and whys of what we might call “the human condition,” inappropriate as that phrase might be here. It’s what Diana learns about Matthew’s long-standing research on creature origins - her belief in Matthew’s purity of motive - that sways her into telling him what she can remember about Ashmole 782.

(Well, fine. “Purity of motive” might not be the best way to describe everything going on in this GIF.)

(All creator credit to you, B.)

But okay, then. Ultimately, I would argue Matthew and Diana bring each other’s Gryffindor tendencies into full flower. To some degree, this is a function of narrative: they’re our protagonist characters, and we’re geared to see them as the heroes. And of course, the events that surround the discovery and disappearance of Ashmole 782 lend themselves to Gryffindor-esque displays of bravery and heroism.

But it’s more than just this Doylist explanation, I think - there’s a strong Watsonian explanation for Matthew and Diana both to be sorted as Gryffindor! Gryffindors are known for being brave and daring - occasionally to the point of recklessness (acting without thinking first). Nor are Gryffindors strangers to self-sacrifice, especially on matters of principle. And oh my goodness, feeling ALL THE THINGS and acting on them in grand ways is VERY, VERY much both Matthew and Diana, as we come to know them during the first season!Diana is a professional scholar, which makes us think “cerebral, methodical, disciplined” and makes us want to sort her as Ravenclaw. But so many of her decisions throughout this first season are impulsive and emotional! I say this not as criticism of Diana, but to argue that, no matter what her training is, her deepest impulses are Gryffindor in nature. Even before the most dramatic events of the season start, we see Diana reacting with stubborn bravery. She has zero problem telling Knox and Satu to bugger off with increasing firmness - the literal force of that “get out of my head!” moment feels very Gryffindor to me. 

And of course, she’s not really intimidated by Matthew, either in his glacial professor mode or when that mask slips at the end of the first episode. In fact, he brings out a confrontational bluntness in her - “You’re a vampire”/“You’re following me”/“Is that a threat?”/“What are you going to do, rip my head off to find the truth?” - that is very, VERY Gryffindor. Once everything really kicks into gear, we see Diana following her emotional impulses nearly all the time. Feeling unsafe with witches? Seek out a vampire! Hell, let him drive you out of town, and spend the day with him. Invite him to dinner - as a starter. When the people who have been bothering you push your emotional buttons (the photographs), immediately seek them out to call them on it, and make a firm decision to try to end the conflict. Then, once they threaten your friend, unleash a torrent of magical power on them.

Diana only gets more Gryffindor from there, whether it’s her stubborn declaration that “they don’t get to choose who I love,” to taking everything that Ysabeau throws at her without flinching, to the brave romantic impetuousness that is the Hasty Vampire Elopement, to the climactic scene in which she nearly sacrifices herself to save Matthew, making an open-ended promise to the Fates.

Diana is a very very powerful, brave witch, and her magic is tied to her emotion. Better be GRYFFINDOR!Now, what about Matthew? In these first few episodes, I still gravitate towards that Slytherin classification. That exchange between them in the boathouse, where she asks if he’s going to rip her head off and he answers, “That’s not how I operate” - Slytherin, my dears, very very Slytherin. And yet. Matthew, is that true?He finds that self-disclosure is the most effective way to convince Diana to be his ally re: the Ashmole manuscript - and then he leans into it real hard. 

And in this context, that’s a real act of bravery! For instance, after Gillian breaks into the lab, we learn that its existence has been a secret for a very long time - but Matthew brings Diana there only the fifth or sixth time they meet, and he spills the beans on the entire project, taking her at her word that she doesn’t subscribe to Knox’s supremacist, genocidal ideology. Emotional; brave; impetuous!As I’ve discussed elsewhere, that project of self-disclosure only accelerates, resulting in a romance that Matthew, at least, knows is going to be extremely problematic. He does attempt to deny the emotional attachment, to some degree - but it’s a small degree. Going back to Oxford against Hamish’s advice; accepting her dinner invitation; coming ‘round to her rooms the next day after rejecting her; eventually coming back to France from Oxford - please picture Matthew de Clairmont tossing his hair a la Mimi and saying “Self-control? I don’t know her.“ 

In one sense, this is Slytherin selfishness, but it’s also Gryffindor emotional decision-making - and bravery in the face of the dire consequences that are certain to follow. The peak Gryffindor Oxford moment for Matthew is, of course, the moment that he dashes into the Bodleian to confront (and calm) Diana as she’s in full tornado mode. There’s nothing shrewd, or cunning, or cerebral in those moments - it’s Matthew operating on pure instinct, and it’s brave, daring, and chivalrous. 

I noted that Diana’s Gryffindor nature intensifies the longer that she and Matthew are around each other. The same is true for Matthew around Diana, despite the conflict engendered by the approach-avoidance paradigm before their Hasty Vampire Elopement. BTW, you notice that we never ACTUALLY get any kind of verbalized explanation for what changes his mind and makes him return to France, commit to Diana, and defy the wrath of the Congregation? Doylist explanation screams GENRE, but the Watsonian (and, I guess, based on this ask, the Rowling-esque) paradigm says: DARING GRYFFINDOR EMOTIONAL DECISION-MAKING. (Or, as @burberrycanary might put it: Soft Vampire Caring.)

Anyway, I can’t GIF things with any measure of skill, but LORD, do I need me a gifset that juxtaposes Matthew’s icy-cold "that’s not how I operate” in 1.01 with the short scene in 1.06 in which he and Baldwin come to blows within ten seconds of Matthew entering the room. Asking someone a question and then slugging them before they can answer? Has there ever been any purer form of Gryffindor nonsense? 

Seriously, Ysabeau gives me EXTREMELY strong Narcissa Malfoy vibes, but her thousand-yard stare anytime that Baldwin and Matthew start mixing it up makes me think that she and Molly Weasley would have a few things to talk about as well. Ysabeau de Clairmont has been dealing with this sibling rivalry shit for fifteen hundred years, and she is OVER IT. 

I’ve been (gently! gently! with love) dragging Matthew and Gryffindors here for the past few paragraphs, so I should obviously also reiterate: that heroic Gryffindor chivalrousness, in conjunction with the conventions of the genre, helps to explain so many of the things that make him work as a protagonist character. Bravery in defense of the people he loves and the principles that he has adopted? We see that time and again with how he acts, not only in protection and support of Diana, but in his care for Marcus and Miriam and Hamish and the whole complement of people who end up under the roof of my beloved Bishop house. For Matthew, this chivalry and bravery is to some degree culturally “baked in” (the man was literally a knight), but it’s clearly also a major set of personality traits.

Like Diana, there’s a lot of emotional control overlaid onto Matthew’s character, quite a deep vein of natural cunning, and an underlying hunger for knowledge that helps to explain their intellectual attraction. But when it comes down to it - he’s got those Big Damn Hero instincts, just like Diana. So again, for my money - that’s one more for GRYFFINDOR!